L'Hotel de Sunza Hamamatsu

I finally understand where the expression "like rabbits" comes from.

Now before any of you 'jump the gun' on where I'm going with this, I just wanted to clarify that it doesn't involve me and animals, although I do feel pretty bad with the way I left them.

Just another day at Tomiyama, playing Kinball with some of the locals in the area (since they talked me ...

... As the videos indicate, these roads are winding around corners as they go up and down the mountain slopes. Sometimes, these roads are only narrow enough to just fit my car through. I can only imagine how the truck drivers feel as they lunge down these mountain passes with their lumber in tow.
My second time coming here, I got lost for the first, but not he last time, in Tomiyama. I was supposed to follow one of my colleagues, Tanabe-sensei, to school that day so she could ...

... t feel too bad, since she looked like she was having a blast, enjoyed my attention, and I wanted to get fishing! I didn't have any luck that day, well..I did have SOME luck. I caught a really pretty (yet inedible) fish, that even the locals marveled at. No one knew its name, except that they didn't eat it. I was surprised, since Japanese cuisine is defined by eating weird-looking things, but instead I was given it as a surprise trophy (I had thrown it away, and I suppose someone ...

So after meeting Andrew in Toyohashi with Julie, I knew I had to see them play. Not only are they very talented musicians, but they were also very entertaining. It was also a goodbye party to a few of the local JETs who were leaving to get married or leaving to avoid it, not sure which was which. Either way, I met Brad and Brian that night, and another gentleman who I can't remember, who played like it was their ...

... something told me (maybe it was laziness) that I shouldn't worry. So I just went back to bed and sort of forgot what happened until my co-worker e-mailed me that day and asked me how my first Jishin was.
So, back to the bike-ride. I went riding on a later date where I took many more photos, which I'm also including in this mix as a sort of introduction to Toyone. I had a sandwich overlooking the village, that's nicely nestled in between the river and the mountain ...

... took the convenient road all the way up to the top to what is probably one of Aichi-prefecture's best date spots. The view was, again, breathtaking. There's actually a whole part of a mountain that was harvested in the shape of a heart...not sure if that was intentional but it's super kawai.
When we got to the first and best temple this mountain provides, Derek explained to me the various good-luck charms, nameplates and papers you can buy to hang or take home as ...

... the mayor of his town (its ok if he thinks your drunk, he'll never mention or allude to it again), and then we head back to get some medicine for Derek's oversized ankle. The medicine consisted of 2 beers down within 3 minutes, and 3 bottles of sake within the hour. We lost count how much we drank, but there were good times for all.
The following day was a completely different story, yes will stay in my mind forever. I'll try to have that entry done within a day or two. S'all for now.

... in a sack, stayed away from anything that looked too outrageous, and generally had a good time.
The worst of the day, other than driving, was wasting 5000 (roughly $5) on stupid Pachinko. I had a guy there "help" me to a machine, and I popped in the 5000yen coin, and watched my money trickle away in the form of little metal balls. There were some seasoned pros all around me, so I figured it was something I was doing wrong; there's a kind of 'knob-technique' to ...

... good views of the city, just as the sun was setting. There were plenty of shops to browse around as well, and of course I had a wander through Chinatown in the evening, and caught a glimpse of the Marine Tower...so yeah, I managed to fit a lot in. The next morning, I slowly worked my way south on the futsu trains to Hamamatsu, home to the lovely Yumi who I`d not seen for 18 months. She greeted me at the ticket gates and it was great to see her again after such a long time ...

... I can. Right now, we're trying to figure out if it's ok if I live in her current apartment (which is owned by the school she's going to be working for.). However, her boss hasn't gotten back to her. Other than that, things have been going good. Aside from my purchasing frenzy (see prev post), I've pretty much stayed in the house. I'm near done with my TEFL test, although, just like every other class, I ...